


Time-Out of Time Vacation

by KnitChaos



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, More cocoa than killing, Muscly Marco Diaz, Neverzone (Star vs. The Forces of Evil), Not everyone's ideal kind of vacation, Season/Series 04 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26060815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnitChaos/pseuds/KnitChaos
Summary: Star is back on Earth, and Tom is pretty bummed about it. Can Marco find a way to cheer him up?
Relationships: Marco Diaz/Tom Lucitor, Star Butterfly/Tom Lucitor
Comments: 10
Kudos: 68





	Time-Out of Time Vacation

Lugging his food-filled belly up the stairs to his room, Marco lay down on his bed, stomach grumbling unhappily. “Oh, God, why did I eat so many tacos, enchiladas, burritos, chimichangas…”

“I don’t know, why did you?”

“Aargh! Who’s in here?” Marco bolted upright, launching himself into a defensive stance and scanning his bedroom until he saw Tom, his demon friend and Prince of the Underworld, sitting on his windowsill. One of his long legs was bent, resting on the sill, and the other was on the floor of Marco’s room, next to a large camping backpack. He looked quite relaxed, his three eyes heavy-lidded, as if he’d been there a while and was making himself comfy, watching the summer twilight darken and the stars come out.

“Hi Marco.” Tom sounded sad, and bored, and Marco had a good idea why. His girlfriend Star had decided not to go on Tom’s “Anywhere-you-want” vacation. Now that she was no longer learning magic from Glossarick, being responsible for Mewman-Monster reconciliation, or helping Eclipsa take on her queenly duties, Star was finally free to do whatever she wanted. Tom thought they could finally take a long trip together, see the sights of the multiverse, have some real couple-time, but Star had opted to go bum around in Echo Creek for the summer with her best friend Marco instead. “So why did you eat so many tacos and stuff?”

Marco sighed. “I was trying to win a prize, but after eating all day, I still didn’t get one. It was stolen.”

Tom sighed, too, and looked up at the stars again. “Oh,” he said softly. “Bummer.”

Marco walked over to the desk next to the window and took a seat on the edge. “What’s the matter with you, buddy?”

Tom was silent for a moment, and Marco let him gather his thoughts. Tom nudged his backback with the toe of his shoe a few times. Finally, he turned his head and looked Marco in the eyes. “I don’t really feel like taking a vacation by myself.” He dropped his head dejectedly. “I’m not really a solo-trip kind of guy.”

Marco’s heart broke for his friend. Marco was so happy to be back in Echo Creek, with his new baby sister, his parents, and now Star was here, too. In one day at Britta’s Tacos, they’d managed to see and talk to nearly everyone else he knew. The only other person Marco really cared about who was missing was, actually, Tom. All right, maybe Buff Frog and his kids, too, but, yeah.

Marco put his hands in his hoodie pockets and his fingers rubbed against the dimensional scissors he kept safe there. “What if there was a way for me to go with you somewhere?”

Tom gave a little negative-sounding grunt. “Thanks, dude, but you can’t do that. Your family and Star need you here.”

“Yeah,” Marco agreed, “But, hear me out.” At Tom’s nod, he continued. “I could take you to Dimension X-103, Heckapoo’s dimension. We could spend a few weeks there, and it would be less than a minute of regular time. I could show you around all my old haunts, we could ride Nachos, climb cliffs, and do a lot more exciting stuff like we did last month with the Kill Devil Pass Riders’ Club.”

Tom thought it over for a minute. “Didn’t everything there want to kill you?”

“Yeah, but once you get to know what things are dangerous and how to avoid them, it’s not that bad. There are actually a lot of really cool things to see there, and I’d be the best possible tour guide because I lived there for over sixteen years, right?”

“That’s for sure.” Tom smiled tentatively. “You’d really go with me?”

“Absolutely, man. You’re like my best guy friend. I would love to go adventuring with you!” Marco looked around himself. “I think we’d better pack a lot of food, though. That dimension’s not exactly known for its fine cuisine.”

Tom snorted, and Marco smiled at his friend’s renewed good humor. They trooped down to the kitchen and filled a bag with energy bars, apples, and whatever else they could find for the trip.

Back in Marco’s room, they packed a few more necessities (“I wished I’d brought some toothpaste the last time,” Marco confessed) but Tom hesitated, brows furrowed. “Do you think we should ask Star if she wants to come with us?”

Marco thought about it. On the one hand, Star had been pretty keen on the idea of spending the summer doing absolutely nothing. On the other, it felt kind of like sneaking off and abandoning her if they didn’t even mention it at all. “Okay, let’s at least give her a chance to come with us if she wants to.”

The pair of boys knocked on Star’s door. “Come in,” she said. Star was lying on her bed, mirror-phone out, playing some kind of beeping game. She glanced over when Tom and Marco walked in, and a brief flicker of uneasy surprise flashed across her face when she saw her boyfriend. She quickly regained her neutral expression and asked, “What’s up, guys?”

The boys’ eyes met, silently debating who should talk to her. Tom raised a meaningful eyebrow at Marco, then looked away from them both.

Marco began, “Hey, Star, uh… well… Tom and I were thinking of taking a little jaunt over to the Neverzone to, um… hang out and have adventures for a while. Yeah.” He took a breath. “Do you wanna come with us? We’ll be back in a minute or so, but it could be a lot of fun if you came too.”

Star kept playing, still staring at her phone, but she chewed her lip in indecision. “I’m pretty burned out right now. The past few months have been super stressful, and I don’t really feel like fighting to stay alive right now. I mean, I’m sorry I’ll miss out on your abs, Marco, and tell Brunzetta ‘Hi’ for me, ‘cause she’s the coolest, but. I just. Yeah, no.”

Star looked up from her game and gave a sad, wistful glance to Tom, who was still looking away, then a little half-smile to Marco. “Sorry.”

Marco shrugged. “Okay. Maybe some other time. C’mon, Tom.”

“Be back soon!” Star called after them as they were leaving the room.

“You know we will!” Marco chuckled.

* * *

_“What the fuck, Marco!”_ Tom swore at Marco as they half-ran, half slid down a ravine of slippery scree. The small, loose rocks were sliding out from under their feet, and stopping their descent was not an option. Not just because of gravity; there was a screeching snaggle-toothed buzzard chasing them, and it didn’t seem to mind the terrain, seeing as it had wings and all. Tom thought for the hundredth time since they’d arrived last night that maybe Star’s idea of just chillin’ with TV and games for a few months was the right way to go.

“Sorry, Buddy, I didn’t know that thing was nesting at the top of that rise.” Marco shouted in his low, growly voice back to Tom over his shoulder. And what shoulders they were, too. Tom had heard that Marco looked older, more buff, in this dimension, but the reality of it was… impressive. Taller than Tom, now, with wide, well-defined shoulders and biceps, tattooed skin, a shadowy beard coming in, and those chiseled abs! And that low, sexy voice… Tom knew he loved Star, but looking at grown-up, muscly Marco made him _want_ things he’d never really thought about before.

 _Don’t get distracted, Tom!_ He followed Marco to the bottom of the ravine and chased after him, boosting his speed a little with a few propulsion blasts of his hands just to keep up with Marco and his long legs. Marco slipped between a couple of large boulders at the bottom of the slope and disappeared. “Marco!” Tom called when he lost sight of the man.

“Hurry up! In here!” Marco’s voice led Tom into a narrow cave entrance, safe from the gigantic buzzard creature. Once inside, Tom huffed and puffed, trying to catch his breath. Marco steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. “You okay, man?”

“Yeah,” _gasp!_ “I—“ _wheeze!_ “just—“ _cough!_ “—need a sec—to catch—my breath.” Tom collapsed in a heap against the side of the cave. He just focused on breathing for a while, then looked up at Marco, dim in the shadows of the cave. He wasn’t even breathing hard, dammit. Marco peeked out of the entrance, looking for their avian pursuer. Once Tom caught his breath, he asked, “Why aren’t you even winded, like, at all?”

One side of Marco’s mouth turned up in a wry grin. “I didn’t have much time for rest and relaxation when I was here. When we arrived, I got back my stamina, too, in addition to everything else.” With this statement, he gestured vaguely to all of himself, then shrugged. “Give yourself some time. You’ll get stronger, too.”

Tom made a little huff of disbelief. “Whatever, dude.”

“No, really,” Marco insisted. “Don’t feel bad. Before you know it, you’ll be as tough and wiry as anything else here.”

Marco looked out of the cave again. “She’s heading off back to her nest. I don’t think she really wanted to eat us. She was just protecting her hatchlings, and we surprised her, is all.”

Tom nodded. “What’s the fastest way back to our camp? We can’t go back up the way we came.”

Marco grinned again. “Nope, but it’ll only take a few hours to go the long way. Rest up for a few minutes, and then we’ll head out.”

Tom inwardly sighed. He was tired, and he wanted to zap himself back to the camp instantaneously, but Marco couldn’t travel by flames, and he didn’t feel right about leaving his friend on his own, even if the guy was much more comfortable here than Tom was. Tom wasn’t sure why he’d signed up for this boot-camp-style vacation at all, except that it meant he got to spend time with Marco, and Marco seemed to really enjoy spending time with him. At this point, he seemed to be the only person who did.

* * *

Marco sat at the edge of their encampment on a huge slab of rock that jutted out from the cliff face. In the shelter of another overhanging rock, he’d rigged up a makeshift stone-and-timber wall for storing their supplies and sleeping behind when the weather was bad. Years ago (millennia ago?) he’d built a more permanent home for himself in the valley below, but time, weather, and scavengers had broken it down and swept it away, until all that had been left was a few piles of rock. If they stayed longer he might build something more lasting, but for now this niche in the cliffs made a good campsite. Their campsite was nothing like the luxury of the castles he and Tom had so recently been living in, or even the comfort of his parents’ suburban home, but the view…

From their high vantage point, a hundred feet from the ground, the view to the west was spectacular. The sky was a rich magenta, shading to indigo, and the clouds were lit up by the recently-set sun in a rainbow of colors. He looked out over a stark landscape of scraggly trees, a molten river of fire, and in the distance, a wild forest that stretched off toward more rocky peaks. Marco was disappointed that Tom was missing it, passed out from exhaustion from their first day’s exertions, but he understood the feeling. At least Tom had been awake enough to light a small fire for them before he collapsed onto his sleeping bag. Marco cooked up the meat he’d caught, and ate part of it before safely stowing the rest away where it wouldn’t attract more animals. They could share it for breakfast.

In his sleep, Tom muttered something unintelligible, and turned over to face Marco. Marco studied the face of the sleeping boy. It was the same face and the same boy as the day before, albeit with mostly smudged-off eyeliner accentuating the bags under his eyes. Somehow, though, he looked much younger to Marco now. All of a sudden there was a sixteen-year age difference between the two that made Marco feel like he was looking at a child. The weirdness in Marco’s timeline was more than skin-deep, and when he flipped back to his adult self in X-103 it affected his mental faculties as well as his outer appearance. He didn’t just look older here, he _felt_ older, too. Part of his extra age transferred over in other dimensions, but not everything, and when he re-entered this timeless dimension, he got the full impact of those additional sixteen years. Suddenly he was twice Tom’s age, and he felt a strong protective urge that went beyond just friendship.

Sleeping Tom was just so darn… beautiful. His lilac skin had a healthy flush across his cheeks, and Marco noticed little things that he couldn’t pay attention to when those arresting red eyes were awake and flashing at him. Like the length of his sooty black eyelashes, or the slightly pinkish tint of his hair. His sharp pointed teeth were just barely showing beyond those purplish-red lips, and he was making a very faint, wheezy sort of noise in his sleep. He was adorable. Marco sort of wanted to kiss him. Were these the kind of feelings a guardian was supposed to be feeling toward a boy half his age?

Marco smacked the side of his own head to try to jar loose the inappropriate thoughts. Tom was his _friend_ , and only interested in girls, as far as Marco knew. Marco was comfortable with being bi, but he hadn’t overtly mentioned it to either of his best friends yet. He thought the cross-dressing was probably a dead giveaway, though. He sighed with sudden exhaustion. Although he knew that nowhere was really safe in this dimension, Marco felt protected enough in their elevated shelter that he could probably sleep for a while, too. He laid his sleeping bag down next to Tom’s, between the demon and the carefully-banked fire, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Two weeks went by, and then another two, and Tom gradually got used to life in the Neverzone. It certainly helped that he could blast fire at anything that threatened them, although most of the things he thought were threatening at first were actually easier to deal with if you weren’t trying to kill them. Tom had lost so many fire demons in their battle against Meteora that he wasn’t as quick to fall into a senseless rage anymore, and actually listened to Marco’s advice about which things weren’t worth blasting to ashes.

He grumbled about all the hard work involved in Marco’s version of “vacationing” but truthfully, he appreciated the good kind of tired he felt at the end of each day. He slept deeply, didn’t get so tired anymore, and could already almost keep up with Marco when they went hiking and climbing. Feeling stronger and tougher went a long ways towards getting over his jealousy over Marco’s fit body, too, and he appreciated that more, especially when he rode behind Marco on Nachos, and held on to that rock-hard stomach for balance.

One night by the fire, Marco asked Tom if he was missing Star much.

“Star? Who’s she?” Tom joked. “Nah, I mean, sure I miss her, but…”

“—But?” Marco prompted.

“Well, we’re just so busy all day, I haven’t had time to dwell on stuff like I did before.” Tom took another sip from his mug of cocoa (boy, was that a great idea to bring with them!) and said, “I think most of the hurt has gone away now. I mean, she and I got along great, and she’s so beautiful, with her big blue eyes and long blonde hair, and she’s such a fun person to be around…”

“Yeah, she’s, like, the most fun, weird, girl ever.” Marco agreed.

“But I think I needed a different kind of break than she did,” Tom continued. “I’ve spent enough time chilling out and not doing much in the Underworld. I wanted to go everywhere and do everything, but she’s already—“

“—been everywhere.” Marco finished for him.

“Yeah.” Tom started softly humming a tune, which Marco recognized as a Love Sentence ballad, and joined in. They leaned back against a boulder and watched the sparks from their fire rise up and up into the night sky. Their shoulders were touching, and Tom could feel Marco’s warmth against his side. When they finished the song, Tom asked softly, “You still love her, too, don’t you?”

“We broke the curse of the Blood Moon, Tom.” Marco evaded.

“I know, but it goes deeper than friendship for you, doesn’t it? You don’t have to lie to me.”

Marco swallowed heavily. “Star and I… we’re like… in synch, or something. Even when we’re disagreeing about something, we still seem to know exactly what the other one’s thinking.”

“That’s really cool,” Tom agreed, “but you want to kiss her, too, right?”

Marco suddenly jumped up and walked away. It was only a few paces, but it was as far away as the cliff edge would allow. Tom keenly felt the loss of Marco’s warmth, even though he could conjure his own.

Marco growled in frustration. “Why are you pushing like this? What’s the point? She’s your girlfriend, I’m fine with that, let’s just drop it, all right?”

Tom looked down at his almost-empty mug and drained the last few sips of cocoa. He sighed heavily and waited for Marco to turn back around towards the fire. When he did, his eyes were watery, overflowing with some emotion Tom couldn’t quite name. They seemed to shimmer in the firelight. “I’m sorry.” Tom said. “I’m just confused, and I’m trying to figure some things out, that’s all.”

Marco came back and squatted down next to Tom so that their faces were almost level. He reached out and brushed a tear from the corner of Tom’s eye. Tom hadn’t even realized he’d been crying. In a gruff voice, Marco almost whispered, “It’s okay. I’m trying to figure some things out, too.”

Marco pivoted and plopped back down where he’d been sitting before, but this time he put his arm around Tom’s shoulders and pulled him closer. “You can take all the time you need here.”

Tom laid his head on that broad shoulder and nodded. “Thanks, dude.”

_“De nada.”_

* * *

“Let’s build a house, man.”

Tom, startled, looked up from the spear he was sharpening. “Wha—?”

Marco actually giggled. “Yeah, like, we’ll pick a nice spot near the forest, cut down a few trees, and build ourselves a cabin.” He looked around. “I mean, it’s been a few months, and I don’t really feel like camping out on this cliff forever. I used to have a house, thousands of years ago, but it’s just ruins now, and I’d kind of like to build another.”

Tom continued to mutely goggle at him.

“Unless you’d rather go home. ‘Cuz we’ve already run the Raucous Rapids a few times, cliff-jumped on Nachos, fought off every bad guy within a hundred miles of here, visited the Ice Wraiths (although they didn’t like _you_ much, fire-boy), and basically done every crazy thing I can think of from here to the Forbidding Mountains.” Marco paused for breath. “If you’re not ready to go home, building a house will take us another several months, at least.”

Tom closed his mouth and stood up, thinking it over. He slowly walked towards Marco, trying to calculate the meaning behind his suggestion. “You want to— stay here? With me? For that long?”

And then Marco did something completely unexpected. He blushed. “I just— don’t you want to stay, too?”

And Tom kissed him. Marco stood perfectly still for a couple of long moments until Tom was sure he’d made a grave error, and pulled away. “Sorry, I didn’t—“

Marco grabbed the retreating boy and pulled him back into a tight hug. “What about your girlfriend?” he whispered in Tom’s ear.

“Um,” Tom gulped. “I think I might be in love with more than one person.”

Marco squeezed him a little harder, making Tom feel a little dizzy. “Me, too, Fire Boy.”

“So let’s build a house.”

**Author's Note:**

> Is anyone interested in seeing this one-shot go a little further? Any suggestions of what should happen?


End file.
